Disney World Wedding, Here We Come!

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like the crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek IV through our wedding planning.

Given the title of this blog, it should be no surprise that it's meant to document our journey toward getting married at Disney World. Prior to asking Girl Scout Fiancée to marry me, we had discussed ideas for weddings and had mentioned Disney World a few times, and both of us were amicable to the idea.

As a little background, I'm a huge Disney World nerd. When I was growing up, Disney World was our constant family vacation site. I've been to Disney World over twenty times, the last one coming in 2007 the summer after I moved to Seattle (I got to go to Disney World with my family when I was sent to the East Coast for business by my company, but unfortunately Girl Scout Fiancée had to stay behind in Seattle). I love Disney World, and it was a huge part of my childhood, from the time I was 5 until I moved to Seattle. I haven't been back in over 5 years, and so you can imagine that I'm going through Disney World Withdrawal.

Sadly, Green Arrow isn't there to help me overcome my Disney World addiction.

So when Girl Scout Fiancée and I started really talking about getting married following our recent engagement, we actually had quite a bit of a conundrum ahead of us. We live in Seattle. Her parents are in Pennsylvania. My parents are in Tennessee. It's not fair to someone if we get married in one of those three locations, so a neutral site is fair to everyone.

Very quickly, Disney World took the lead in our idea of where to get married. It was a neutral site in a warm climate, within driving distance for both of our families. With the wedding packages, a lot of the planning is taken care of by Disney; this was a huge plus for me, because I'm already extremely worried about the logistics of planning (and paying for) a destination wedding. Of course, the fact that the wedding package comes with Annual Passes for both the bride and the groom, as well as the likelihood of some very nice hotel discounts, definitely is a major factor; given where we live, a wedding is the perfect, and possibly only, chance for me to justify a Disney World vacation.

The biggest deal-sealer for me, though, is the fact that Girl Scout Fiancée has never been to Disney World. Back in 2009 we did a big road trip down the West Coast, stopping in Anaheim to spend a day in Disneyland. It was fun (and I didn't even let my Disney World snobbery come to the surface), but there was a single moment for me that was so adorable and heartbeaking at the same time that it firmed up my resolve to make a trip to Disney World happen, come hell or high water.

It's after dark and we've got Fastpasses for the Indiana Jones ride, which is completely awesome and I wish there was a version at Hollywood Studios. We're on our way to the ride right as Fantasmic! is starting. We're not stopping (we figure, why stop to watch a show when this might be our only chance to ride a great ride?) when Mickey Mouse appears on the stage for the first time. We're rushing toward the ride, but Girl Scout Fiancée stops dead in her tracks, turns and points toward the Fantasmic! stage, and, in the most childlike voice full of wonder I have ever heard from her, says, "That's Mickey Mouse!" In that instant, my heart cracked into a thousand little pieces; the excitement and awe on the face of my twentysomething year old girlfriend, who sounded so much like a four year old getting her first glimpse of Mickey Mouse, just wrecked me, because the two other guys that we were with were continuing to rush on, and I wanted to stop everything so that GSF could see the show. In the end, she decided to keep up with the other guys and ride the ride, but that was the moment that I knew I needed to take her back to Disney to see Mickey Mouse in the flesh felt.

A mouse with pyrotechnic powers nearly brought me to tears.

So, when Girl Scout Fiancée and I started narrowing down the options, and Disney World started floating to the top, I knew it was meant to be. I'm jazzed about finally getting married, but more than that I'm looking forward to seeing that look of childlike wonder on her face over and over again, this time without having to rush off to a ride, taking our time and seeing everything she wants to see. This is going to be my chance to introduce the woman I love to the vacation spot that has always been a huge part of my life. When visiting Disney World at a younger age, I would see people getting married there and think about how great it would be to introduce someone to Disney World, and now I'm going to get the chance.